Author Archive:

Caroline Fiennes

News 2 Caroline Fiennes 5 June 2015

A welcome public row about donor effectiveness

Well done Malcolm Gladwell. On Wednesday this week, Harvard announced its biggest gift ever, $400m from the American hedge fund manager John Paulson for its school of engineering and applied sciences. Gladwell ridiculed it: ‘It …

Special feature Caroline Fiennes 1 June 2015

Is Constituent Voice a proxy for randomized controlled trials?

The short answer is no. At first sight, it seems that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and Constituent Voice (CV) could be substitutes for each other because they both seek to ascertain a programme’s effect. In …

Conference reports Caroline Fiennes 18 November 2014

Reflections from Emirates Foundation Youth Philanthropy Summit

Begun only last year, Emirates Foundation’s annual summit has already become a fixture, and it’s huge. It started as a way for Emirates Foundation to gather insights to improve its own work – running a …

Opinion Caroline Fiennes 3 October 2014

Frankly speaking: C&A Foundation tells it like it is

‘We take seriously our responsibility for our employees, customers and everyone who is part of our supply chain,’says the international fashion retailer C&A on its website. So says almost every other international company. But they …

Special feature Caroline Fiennes 1 September 2012

Moving the tanker

‘We are a tiny, tiny little organization,’ says Bill Gates about the largest foundation that the world has ever seen. He’s right: the Gates Foundation’s annual grantmaking is only a tiny fraction of governments’ budgets. …

Opinion 3 Caroline Fiennes 30 July 2012

Faster, higher, stronger: Olympic lessons for philanthropy

Coming from ancient Greece, even the word ‘philanthropy’ hints at similarities with the Olympic Games. And there is much which philanthropists, donors, charities and those of us who support and guide them can learn from …

Opinion 4 Caroline Fiennes 28 March 2012

A grand unified theory of effective giving starts with beneficiaries

‘What do you think of our team?’ asked the chairman of a new foundation. I hesitated, fearing he would dislike my answer. The trustees were experts in only two of their three focus areas; none …